BILL NUMBER: AB 1233	CHAPTERED  09/30/00

	CHAPTER   933
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   SEPTEMBER 30, 2000
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   SEPTEMBER 29, 2000
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 30, 2000
	PASSED THE SENATE   AUGUST 25, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   AUGUST 18, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JUNE 29, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JANUARY 27, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JANUARY 26, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JANUARY 20, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JUNE 1, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Aroner

                        FEBRUARY 26, 1999

   An act to amend Sections 11322.6, 11322.61, 11322.9, and 11451.5
of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to human services.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1233, Aroner.  CalWORKs program.
   Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal funds
through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
block grant program to eligible states.  Existing law provides for
the CalWORKs program for the allocation of federal funds received
through the TANF program, under which each county provides cash
assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families.
   Existing law requires certain participants in the CalWORKs program
to participate in certain welfare-to-work activities, including
grant-based on-the-job training with a diversion of all or a portion
of the grant to the participant's employer.
   This bill would establish specified limitations on the grant-based
on-the-job training grant diversion and would revise requirements
for CalWORKs recipient and employer participation in the program.
   Existing law provides that certain amounts are exempt from the
calculation of income of the family for purposes of determining
eligibility for benefits under the CalWORKs program.
   This bill would provide that grant-based on-the-job training wages
would not be excluded from the determination of income of the family
for those purposes.
   This bill, by revising employer participation requirements under
the CalWORKs program, would increase county responsibilities in
implementing the CalWORKs program, and would result in a
state-mandated local program.
  The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state.  Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement, including the creation of a State Mandates Claims Fund
to pay the costs of mandates that do not exceed $1,000,000 statewide
and other procedures for claims whose statewide costs exceed
$1,000,000.
   This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 11322.6 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   11322.6.  The welfare-to-work plan developed by the county welfare
department and the participant pursuant to this article shall
provide for welfare-to-work activities.  Welfare-to-work activities
may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:
   (a) Unsubsidized employment.
   (b) Subsidized private sector employment.
   (c) Subsidized public sector employment.
   (d) Work experience, which means public or private sector work
that shall help provide basic job skills, enhance existing job skills
in a position related to the participant's experience, or provide a
needed community service that will lead to employment.  Unpaid work
experience shall be limited to 12 months, unless the county welfare
department and the recipient agree to extend this period by an
amendment to the welfare-to-work plan.  The county welfare department
shall review the work experience assignment as appropriate and make
revisions as necessary to ensure that it continues to be consistent
with the participant's plan and effective in preparing the
participant to attain employment.
   (e) On-the-job training.
   (f) (1) Grant-based on-the-job training, which means public or
private sector employment or on-the-job training in which the
recipient's cash grant, or a portion thereof, or the aid grant
savings resulting from employment, or both, is diverted to the
employer as a wage subsidy to partially or wholly offset the payment
of wages to the participant, so long as the total amount diverted
does not exceed the family's maximum aid payment.  A county shall not
assign a participant to grant-based on-the-job training unless and
until the participant has voluntarily agreed to participate in
grant-based on-the-job training by executing a voluntary consent
form, which shall be developed by the department.
   (2) Grant-based on-the-job training shall include community
service positions pursuant to Section 11322.9.
   (3) Any portion of a wage from employment that is funded by the
diversion of a recipient's cash grant, or the grant savings from
employment pursuant to this subdivision, or both, shall not be exempt
under Section 11451.5 from the calculation of the income of the
family for purposes of subdivision (a) of Section 11450.
   (g) Supported work or transitional employment, which means forms
of grant-based on-the-job training in which the recipient's cash
grant, or a portion thereof, or the aid grant savings from
employment, is diverted to an intermediary service provider, to
partially or wholly offset the payment of wages to the participant.
   (h) Work-study.
   (i) Self-employment.
   (j) Community service.
   (k) Adult basic education, which shall include reading, writing,
arithmetic, high school proficiency, or general educational
development certificate of instruction, and
English-as-a-second-language.  Participants under this subdivision
shall be referred to appropriate service providers that include, but
are not limited to, educational programs operated by school districts
or county offices of education that have contracted with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide services to
participants pursuant to Section 33117.5 of the Education Code.
   (l) Job skills training directly related to employment.
   (m) Vocational education and training, including, but not limited
to, college and community college education, adult education,
regional occupational centers, and regional occupational programs.
   (n) Job search and job readiness assistance, which means providing
the recipient with training to learn job seeking and interviewing
skills, to understand employer expectations, and learn skills
designed to enhance an individual's capacity to move toward
self-sufficiency.
   (o) Education directly related to employment.
   (p) Satisfactory progress in secondary school or in a course of
study leading to a certificate of general educational development, in
the case of a recipient who has not completed secondary school or
received such a certificate.
   (q) Mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence
services, described in Sections 11325.7 and 11325.8 and Article 7.5
(commencing with Section 11495), that are necessary to obtain and
retain employment.
   (r) Other activities necessary to assist an individual in
obtaining unsubsidized employment.
   Assignment to an educational activity identified in subdivisions
(k), (m), (o), and (p) is limited to those situations in which the
education is needed to become employed.
  SEC. 2.  Section 11322.61 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   11322.61.  (a) Except as provided in subdivisions (c) and (d) of
Section 11327.5, if there is any interruption in receipt of income
for an employee in a grant-based on-the-job training program, as
provided for pursuant to subdivision (j) of Section 11322.6, that is
caused by an employer's conduct, the county shall ensure that a
recipient receives 100 percent of the maximum aid payment, not
counting the unpaid wages, that the assistance unit is eligible to
receive.  The payment shall be made as a supplemental grant payment.
The county shall act to recover from the employer any amount of the
grant diverted to the employer that was not paid as wages to the
recipient.  The agreement between the county and the employer
pertaining to grant-based on-the-job training shall state that the
county will take action to collect from the employer the amount of
the grant diverted to the employer that was not paid as wages to the
recipient.
   (b) Pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 11322.6, counties using
grant-based on-the-job training shall monitor employers
participating in grant-based on-the-job training, and shall cancel
the participation of employers who demonstrate, over time, any of the
following:
   (1) An unwillingness to hire recipients who have participated in
grant-based on-the-job training with that employer.
   (2) An inability to provide job skills that enable participants to
obtain nonsubsidized employment with other employers.
  SEC. 3.  Section 11322.9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   11322.9.  (a) In accordance with the requirements of this section:

   (1) Counties may provide for community service activities for
individuals who have not completed the period specified in
subdivision (a) of Section 11454 and are not employed in unsubsidized
employment, sufficient to meet the hours of participation required
by Section 11322.8.
   (2) Counties shall provide for community service activities for
individuals who have completed the period as specified in subdivision
(a) of Section 11454, who cannot find unsubsidized employment
sufficient to meet the hours of participation required by Section
11322.8, and the county certifies that no job is currently available
to fulfill the hours required by Section 11322.8, and who continue to
meet the financial eligibility criteria for aid under this chapter.

   (b) Community service activities shall meet all of the following
criteria:
   (1) Be performed in the public and private nonprofit sector.
   (2) Provide participants with job skills that can lead to
unsubsidized employment.
   (3) Comply with the antidisplacement provisions contained in
Section 11324.6.
   (c) Participants in community service activities shall do all of
the following:
   (1) Participate in a community service activity for the number of
hours required by Section 11322.8, unless fewer hours of community
service participation are required by federal law.
   (2) Participate in other work activities for the number of hours
equal to the difference between the hours of participation in
community service and the number of hours of participation required
under Section 11322.8.
   (d) The county plan pursuant to Section 10531 shall include a
component, developed by the county in collaboration with local
private sector employers, local education agencies, county welfare
departments, organized labor, recipients of aid under this chapter,
and government and community-based organizations providing job
training and economic development, in order to identify all of the
following:
   (1) Unmet community needs that could be met through community
service activities.
   (2) The target population to be served.
   (3) Entities responsible for project development, fiscal
administration, and case management services.
   (4) The terms of community service activities, that, to the extent
feasible, shall be temporary and transitional, and not permanent.
   (5) Supportive efforts, including job search, education, and
training, which shall be provided to participants in community
service activities.
   (6) If the county intends to include grant-based on-the-job
training in its community service plan, the process by which the
county will comply with the voluntary consent form requirement
established in subdivision (f) of Section 11322.6, including a list
of the languages in which the consent form will be available.
   (e) Aid under this chapter for any participant who fails to comply
with the requirements of this section without good cause shall be
reduced in accordance with Section 11327.5.
   (f) Child care as a supportive service shall be provided to
participants in community service activities pursuant to Article 15.5
(commencing with Section 8350) of Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the
Education Code, and Section 11323.2.  Other supportive services may
be provided by the county at the county's option.  However, if the
county does not provide mental health services pursuant to Section
11325.7, the county shall indicate in its county plan under Chapter
1.3 (commencing with Section 10530) how mental health services needed
by participants will be made available during participation in a
community service job.
  SEC. 4.  Section 11451.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   11451.5.  (a) Notwithstanding Section 11008 and except as provided
by subdivision (f) of Section 11322.6, the following amounts shall
be exempt from the calculation of the income of the family for
purposes of subdivision (a) of Section 11450:
   (1) If disability-based unearned income does not exceed two
hundred twenty-five dollars ($225), both of the following amounts:
   (A) All disability-based unearned income plus any amount of not
otherwise exempt earned income equal to the amount of the difference
between the amount of disability-based unearned income and two
hundred twenty-five dollars ($225).
   (B) Fifty percent of all not otherwise exempt earned income in
excess of the amount applied to meet the differential applied in
subparagraph (A).
   (2) If disability-based unearned income exceeds two hundred
twenty-five dollars ($225), both of the following amounts:
   (A) All of the first two hundred twenty-five dollars ($225) in
disability-based unearned income.
   (B) Fifty percent of all earned income.
   (b) For purposes of this section:
   (1) Earned income means gross income received as wages, salary,
employer provided sick leave benefits, commissions, or profits from
activities such as a business enterprise or farming in which the
recipient is engaged as a self-employed individual or as an employee.

   (2) Disability-based unearned income means State Disability
Insurance benefits, private disability insurance benefits, Temporary
Workers' Compensation benefits, and social security disability
benefits.
   (3) Unearned income means any income not described in paragraph
(1) or (2).
  SEC. 5.  Notwithstanding Section 17610 of the Government Code, if
the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains
costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and
school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7
(commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the
Government Code.  If the statewide cost of the claim for
reimbursement does not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000),
reimbursement shall be made from the State Mandates Claims Fund.
